Religious Monopoly

Syncretism and Henotheism

     While true of Amun-Re and his two components, many other gods interacted with one another through merges, relations, and associations. Syncretism and henotheism were as integral to Egyptian religion as the sun since without ever-evolving associations, the religion would become gridlocked. Osiris is the most well documented case of henotheism because of his existence from the beginning of the Old Kingdom through the collapse of the Egyptian religion itself. Understanding the complexity of these associations between gods reveals the mindset that dictated the shifts of much of the ancient religion’s change through its existence.
     Foundational to the integration of gods deals with the universality of its acceptance. For example, all Egyptians believed that the underworld existed. Since all realms must have a king, Osiris successfully absorbed many others to become the sole king of the underworld throughout Egypt. Similarly, Ma’at dominated the definitions of truth, justice, and order while Nun represented doubt, chaos, and destruction.
     The expanding influence of a god was usually directed by the religious stability of that deistic belief in concordance with the current dynasty. Local gods’ assertions to the forefront of political activity quickened universal acceptance among Egyptians. Local gods had very strong specific powers in that particular region while greater gods had widespread power but remained ineffectual in a particular region until association with local gods was secured. The few foreign gods that gained limited success in the delta regions of Egypt also employed this method like Anat-Hathor in the Third Intermediate Period.
     The historic center of worship for a god was not always the origin as explained earlier with Amun. Most Egyptian gods had multiple functions that overlapped with other gods within that local region so that having three or four gods that served the same purpose was not uncommon. Classical Greek and Roman authors tried to specialize Egyptian god functions but oversimplified. The notable exceptions to this are Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys.
     As the popularity of gods grew, triads formed within areas of heaviest influence. The largest organizational attempt in Egyptian history occurred under Amenhotep III with systematic reinterpretation of national deities to emphasize connections with Re. Two major categories resulted. The first, hybrids, resulted in a third god with a hyphenated name that combined the depictions of both gods. Instead of reducing the overall number of gods like henotheism, hybrids created a new god altogether. Sobek-Re combined the powers of the crocodile god with that of the sun; this new god’s largest worship base was Memphis, a stronghold of neither Sobek nor Re. The second method drew connections through associations. Thoth and Re both held baboons sacred and thus, the two gods were linked through this. The largest problem from this second method is that there was little consistency in depiction since physical attributes only revealed part of a god’s attributes. This caused the creation of the third god. Also, the greater the god and the more gods he absorbed, the more representations depicted. Re’s symbolism is extremely varied.
     The process of syncretism resulted in the hyphenation of gods to show dual characteristics that provided two, three, or nine-fold strength. However, this often did not result in a more comprehensive, single god. Henotheism involved a blending of traits where one god obviously prevailed. This also occurred in two manners. If a greater god absorbed a lesser god, such as Osiris over Andjti, the inferior god completely disappeared with only reminiscent symbolism. To stave off this act, lesser gods could assume parts of a greater god as was widely done with sun gods and Re.
     Gods are merged based on similar traits, depictions, and character. Sekhmet and Bastet, both cat goddesses, often merged because of their similarity in depiction and realm of worship. A partial statue now located in the British Museum of Nature History contains a statue of Sekhment-Bastet, linked lioness-cat goddesses. As described by the Shorter, “The strangest feature of the object is the cat's face, which is made of bronze attached to the stone figure (the latter shows the ruff, and is therefore properly of Sekhmet) . . . the throne of Sekhmet-Bastet may be easily explained by the fact that [these cat goddesses] are known to be connected.” Linked names created composite gods like Re-Horakhty and combined different aspects similar deities like Atum-Khepri to combine the morning and evening sun. Syncretism
     recognizes presence of one god “in” another god when that first god adopts a role that was a primary function of the other. They did not become identical. Reaching outside the sphere of Egyptian religion, Amun’s weapon could be interpreted as a thunderbolt, the same weapon as the Greek god Zeus. Zeus-Amun became a recognized form of the ram sky god in the Late Period because of similar, overlapping attributes.

Religious Relations and Structure

     New Kingdom Egypt used triad structure to simplify divine plurality and unity. “In Egypt the triad was an extremely suitable structure for connecting plurality and unity, because the number three was not only a numeral, but also signified the indefinite plural. This is apparent, for instance, in hieroglyphic writing: to express the plural, an ideogram may be repeated three times or three strokes placed after the signs indicating a noun. Thus the triad was a structure capable of transforming polytheism into tritheism or differentiated monotheism.” The triads containing both sexes usually have the family structure: father, mother, and male child. Family in triad structure cannot exist as syncretized gods because of the female characteristic, thus retaining the pluralistic totality. As personalities they remain independent of each other. The most familiar example is Osiris, Isis, and Horus of Abydos. Other examples originated around the larger cities and became cemented during Amenhotep III’s reorganization attempts.
     Modalistic triads, composed only of male deities not families, have the gods appear under three aspects without becoming three gods. In essence, the members reflect three aspects of one deity. The three forms of the sun associated with the parts of the day, Khopri, Re, and Aten, may be interpreted in this way. A unique example is the Ptah-Shu-Tefnut group that displays traits of both the modalistic and tritheistic triads and, in fact, it seems to represent an intermediary form of the two.
     Osiris is the best documented example of how a god “conquered” lesser gods as he adapted and absorbed new symbolism. Osiris, originally a fertility god, assimilated easily with other deities of fertility and the afterlife. Osiris enacted as the “conquering god” by absorbing lands and features of other gods. Andjti, an old man representative of the afterlife, is the oldest known case of syncretism and occurred in pre-dynastic times. Osiris also engulfed Khenti-Amentiu, “Foremost of the Westerners,” in the early Old Kingdom. Osiris became more widespread with his incorporation into Heliopolis Ennead. The Old Kingdom recognized his powers of fearsome judgment but by the New Kingdom all that remained of this was “the terrible.” With the expansion of funerary rites in the Middle Kingdom, Osiris’s popularity spread, and with his spreading, other kings of the underworld died off.

Post-Pharaonic Religious Influences

     As Egyptian religion adapted to internal changes within Egypt, so to did it adjust to external influences from foreign invaders. Though the pharaonic age held the apex of Egypt’s religious might, invading peoples failed to weaken the resolve of the Egyptian people both politically and religiously.
     After 700 BC, pharaohs ceased to be a reliable source for religious strength because control of Egypt changed hands with Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome over the next millennium. Bad times in Egypt were ascribed to ungodliness and wavering faith; thus, Egyptians become more devout despite foreign invaders bringing different religions. However, after centuries of oppression, Egyptians became cynical, and many adopted an “eat, drink, and be merry” mentality, parading mummies through feasts to show the purposelessness of life. They held their religion close while embracing despair from the fall of Egypt.

Persian Enmity

     Part of the Egyptian’s resoluteness stemmed from their superiority complex. They saw the Persians as superior only in wine making. No people can become obedient and subservient to another when it believes that it is intrinsically better. Herodotus reports that the Egyptians viewed the Persians as inferior in every way except in the art of making wine, a process foreign to the Egyptians. The Late Period does reveal a cyclic nature to Egyptian religion even if that cycle is two-thousand years long. Pre-dynastic deities were almost all animalistic with the falcon and cow representing the cosmos. Pharaonic period gods incorporated human characteristics and mixed various animal forms. The Late Period returned to its origins with gods mainly depicted in animal form.
     The first major empire to subjugate the Egyptians, Persia, struggled with rebellion its entire reign. Even with attempts to portray the Shah-n-Shah as a son of Re and thus rightful pharaoh failed. Rebellions continued the entirety of Persian rule. Egypt stoutly defended its northern border from Persia, but Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, successfully invaded Egypt. The resulting havoc from his desecration of the Apis bull instigated an Egyptian rebellion that achieved its intent, pushing Persian control back. Throughout this period animal cults reached their peak. Little religious influence transferred to either society from the other. However, Horus of the Horizon, depicted as a winged-disc, increased acceptance of Ahura Mazda in the Syrian region. Egyptian stele standing for centuries with Horus carvings allowed the symbolism of the new Persian religion to re-purpose Egypt’s past glory. Both cultures placed the winged-disc over doorways as a protective symbol.

Hellenic Influence

     While Persia failed to absorb any theological lessons from Egypt, the Greeks differed. All non-Greeks were classified as barbarians, but Egyptians nearly reached an equatable standard due to an alliance with Greece against Persia. The Egyptian’s history of seemingly infinite grandeur held Greek merchants in awe. That said of all the lands the Greeks attempted to Hellenize, Egypt resisted the most successfully with almost no permanent impacts.
     Egyptians resisted conversion to Greek and Roman gods just as their ancestors had resisted a native pharaoh’s law to abandon all gods but Aten. No religious zeal left the Egyptian people in the intermediary years, and true to their ancestors, Egyptians regularly resisted the influence of foreign gods.
     In all, Hellenism of Egypt failed because the Greeks became Egyptianized. While Egyptian was supposed to be subservient to Greek linguistically, Egyptians successfully climbed the social structure through the Hellenizing process and became prominent officials that minimized Greek influence on Egypt at large.
     The Ptolemaic era’s center of intellectual influence fully embraced Egyptian religion by the end of the second generation. Greek versions of Egyptian myths failed to penetrate the population at large, and Greek settlements along the Mediterranean coast adopted Egyptians myths within decades. The Hellenic cult of Sarapis, a national deity, spread rapidly at this time. The cult spread faster in the Levant than in its Hellenistic-Egypt origin. The Sarapis cult contained both Egyptian and Greek ideas and was adopted as the state religion not for its popularity but as median ground between the two cultural and religious forces. A committee of Ptolemaic scholars sat down and compounded a god out of elements derived from various nations and religions selected to suit the needs of the moment as they understood them: Sarapis sought to attract Greek and Egyptian alike and to form a religious bond.
     Egyptian mythology came to influence the Hellenistic world at large. Greeks’ readily adopted Osiris and the Apis bull of Amun in their own cults. Greek settlers in Egypt, a conquered land, were almost unrecognizable to their European counterparts. The emotional individualism that had become characteristic of Egyptian religion post-New Kingdom successfully attracted crowds of new followers as mystery cults came to dominate the religious realm of the Hellenistic and early Roman eras.

Roman Severity

     Hellenization failed, especially when compared to the success of the Seleucid Empire since the Greek rulers were Egyptianized. Rome took a much stiffer rule with Egypt by politically regulating Egyptian overseers below Roman citizen status. The most important change to the political system was the stripping of Egyptian priests of land, wealth, and tax exemption. Since this upset the balance of Ma’at, Egypt rebelled against Rome for three consecutive years after the change in religious regulations in 66 AD. Ever resentful towards its master, Egypt rebelled again around 150 A.D. when an Egyptian priest initiated a century long rebellion in which the troops were composed of native Egyptian farmers that had been taxed off their land by Rome.
     Rome made no impact in altering Egyptian life except in resistance to Roman rule; Egyptians, influential even in defeat, originated a cult that came to dominate the Roman world before Christianity defeated a three thousand year old goddess. Isis, meaning “throne” in Egyptian, served as the devout wife of Osiris with a history dating back before the fifth dynasty. For most of history Isis was not worshiped separately but incorporated into other’s temples, notably connected to Osiris. Not until Ptolemy III were any temples dedicated to Isis specifically which occurred with her increasing fame as the goddess of the most popular mystery cult.
     Under the mystery cult which reached its height in the early Roman empire, Isis retained her affinity for healing which references the mythology of her recovering Osiris’s body after his murder by Set. In The Golden Ass when Lucius calls out while standing by the sea for the mercy of Isis to turn him from an ass back into a man, Isis responds by saying that she “represent[s] in one shape all gods and goddesses” and grants his request. This explanation harkens back to Amun-Re’s role of connecting with all other gods. The most popular instrument of choice for Egyptian religious ceremonies, the sistrum, is still used by Isis’s cult followers outside of Egyptian during the Roman period.
     The religious procession of the Isis mystery cult, while adoptive of non-Egyptian customs, remained largely reminiscent to the goddess’s Egyptian origin. The Egyptian gods Anubis and Hathor, the bovine goddess of beauty, accompanied the processions. Isis’s golden vase references Egyptian processions of a god’s ka, soul-possessing statue which traveled on a barque through the Nile. Osiris, husband to Isis, remains coupled with her though with less influence than during pharaonic rule. Lastly, ancient Egyptian priests strictly enforced religious scruples; Herodotus respected the sincerity of the Egyptians’ extreme devoutness including sexual abstinence in or the day before entering a holy place, dietary restrictions, and mandatory shaving of the head and body. Similarly, Apuleius restricts his diet for ten days before the initiation ceremony of the mystery cult. When entering the priesthood, Apuleius shaves himself since bodily hair lowered man to the status of an animal and only those that were clean shaven could serve the gods.
     Egypt successfully initiated some cultures into its religious ideology with widespread acceptance. Classically, Greece is credited with conquering her conqueror, but to a lesser extent, Egypt seems to succeed as well.

Christian Ascendancy

     By defeating it, Christianity made the first lasting impact on Egyptian religion in three thousand years. However, Christianity is imprinted by the Egyptians since Egyptian influence affected all cultures in the Roman period. The modern Coptic church still borrows symbolism from its Egyptian counterpart including abstinence in religious areas, worship of a man as the son of god, and the myth of a dying and rising god though it is not the only modern branch of Christianity with descriptions of the Judeo-Christian god.
      The Hebrew god Yahweh shares many things with Amun including association with the sky, a bellowing voice, his demand for bull and ram offerings, and control of the waters with their divisions in the heavens and the seas. The king as a both a priest and an intermediary between the gods and the people demonstrates connections to Christianity’s explanations of Jesus as king and priest.
     Christianity arose in Egypt in defiance to Rome. The first method involved the wide popularity of monasticism. By withdrawing into the wilderness, large numbers of Egyptians could simply ignore Roman governing practice. The second method of resistance dealt with the organization of the early Christian church within Egypt. Its foundation in Greek theological philosophy ostracized it from Rome, and the Egyptian church hierarchy never aligned with Rome or Constantinople. The most lasting imprint of Hellenization, Coptic, merged Greek and Egyptian letters. Under Roman rule, the lower classes widely used the Coptic language which was eventually adopted as the official language of the Egyptian Christian church.
     Egyptian religion died after Theodosius declared Christianity the official faith of the Roman Empire and banned all others. The Egyptian religion continued to be practiced underground until the early fifth century, but its practices were not conducive to secrecy. The political dominance of Christianity in the Roman period expunged these ancient Egyptian practices once foundational for the functioning of Egypt. This also marked the closing of Egypt’s rebellions. No longer motivated by the preservation of Ma’at, Egyptians accepted the Christian God’s eternal salvation from the unknown chaos and darkness so long essential to Egyptian understanding.
     The rise of the pharaohs and Egyptian religion alike dominated the government, culture, society, and landscape, of a people for over three millennium. Key to the resilience of this religion was its flexibility and devoutness which allowed the religion to prosper under times of prosperity, famine, and oppression. The Egyptian people’s devoutness to their gods despite the collapse of their empire gives an understanding to how vital the religion was to its worshipers. Resilient despite constant conflict for its last three hundred years, the downfall of Egyptian religion represents the end of Egypt more definitely than the fall of native pharaohs eight-hundred years prior.
     Though the great king of the gods, Amun-Re, eventually subsided into the backwaters of the Nile, Isis, an Egyptian creation, continued to testify to the greatness of Egyptian religious ideology and spread throughout the non-Egyptian world. Despite competition from religions of other cultures, Egyptian beliefs subverted most competing practices and became established within their oppressors’ empires. Religiously, Egyptian influence remains within the modern church because of its influences on ancient Judaism and Christianity. Through three millennia, the perseverance and stubbornness of the Egyptian people testified to their passionate following of whomever could justify himself as the son of the gods from pharaoh to Christ.

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Agatha Tyche

King of the Gods

Amun-Re

     The size of a god’s temple reflected his importance since size dictated land claims, herd sizes, and income. The greater numbers of temples dedicated to a god, the more widespread his acclaim.1 It is not surprising then that by the end of the New Kingdom, Amun-Re dominated the religion of the Egyptian people.
     The religion attributed three common ranks to deities. All people recognized the universal rank. Claimed by Ma’at, Nun, Osiris, and few others, these gods were worshipped by all Egyptians with no known exceptions.2 The major gods, favored by the state, included Re, Amun, Ptah, and well known triads. The most famous of these state groupings, as arranged by the eighteenth dynasty, is the Great Ennead. These twelve gods oversaw the divine birth as established in the Old Kingdom and which remained popular throughout the millennium of pharaonic rule. Each nome had appointed gods that characterized that region. A nome in Upper Egypt dedicated itself to Hathor while one in Lower Egypt declared Neith its patron. Every city also had special gods which were honored with their names and symbols paraded on a stand at festivals. There is no known limit for the total number of Egyptian gods. The lowest order of gods represented familial and personal gods which the lower classes clung to with great affinity. Tauret and Bes are the most commonly exemplified gods of this division and functioned largely as protectors. All gods had special locality of significance, even cosmic gods, and these areas fostered strong association with worship to that deity.

Amun

     Amun’s origin remains ambiguous though records of his temples date from the fifth dynasty onwards. During the First Intermediate Period, Amun displaced Montu’s dominance in Thebes and retained that position until the fall of the Egyptian religion. With his established prominence at Thebes, Amun’s relationship with other gods changes. His consort becomes Mut, and he obtains a more war-like character, probably from the militaristic focus characteristic of Thebes. As the thirteenth dynasty in Thebes expelled the remnants of Hyksos rule, Amun’s creditation as a warrior flourished with the upswing of Theban power and is referred to as “lord of victory” and “lover of strength.” Nonetheless, he remains a very diversified character named “the hidden one” which hints at his origin as a sky god. One of the main focuses of his worship dealt with Amun’s concealed knowledge. However, once Amun’s increasing popularity associated him with the creator gods, he was fused into the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, where he became depicted as self-renewing snake.
     Although Amun’s origin is unknown, Amun and Min have very close associations in the Old Kingdom. However, as Amun’s prominence and association with Re strengthens, Min’s connections are removed. The majority of Egyptian gods ascribed to fertility at some point through their long existence. Amun remains a sky and wind god. As a sky god solar connections became apparent with the Book of the Dead repeatedly naming Amun the “eldest of the gods of the eastern sky,” referencing a primeval and solar fusion of Amun and Re.
     The ascension of Amun to king of the gods was long in coming. The pyramid texts of the fifth dynasty depict Amun sitting on a throne, and Middle Kingdom artwork has Amun in the position of pharaoh, ruling over the Two Lands, references to Upper and Lower Egypt. Constant allusions to his deistic dominance do not arise until the fall of the Hyksos invaders.3 In time the Greeks associated Amun with Zeus, both kings of the gods in their own rights.
     Through this ascension, Amun became a universal god of the Egyptians. His soul permeated all things as the one in whom all other gods were subsumed. Depicted as human with a bull tail and a double-plumed crown, he represented the wisdom of man with the strength and fertility of a bull as he ruled over Egypt and its gods. His other sacred animals, the ram and the goose, represented his fertility. The goose in particular because its association with water harkened back to his origin as a sky god and control over the heavenly waters. Ram-headed sphinxes decorated many of his temples as is still evident by the avenue of sphinxes at Karnak. By massing them at the entrance to his temples, worshippers had to walk through the many eyes and ears of their god to enter his sacred space, and if the worshipper failed to please him, the stone servants would destroy the doubter.
     The annual Opet celebration celebrated Amun as his barque journeyed up and down the Nile, visiting his related gods. This parade through all of Egypt kept his popularity high while reinforcing the power of his priestly servants and, more indirectly, pharaoh who served him on the physical throne of Egypt. With such a strong residency within the population and vast self-sufficient wealth in his temples, Amun could not be destroyed even with the thirty year attack on his sovereignty by Akhenaten. Two dynasties after the Amarna period, Amun’s high priest in Thebes essentially functioned as a second pharaoh in Upper Egypt. Pharaohs sent princesses to marry the high priest; the priestess became known as “God’s wife of Amun” and rivaled the position of the high priest itself in later times. The priestess became widely popular among commoners because of her generosity and sympathy for the lower classes just as Amun advocated for the common man, obtaining titles such as “vizier of the humble” and “he who comes at the voice of the poor.”
     Amun, armed with his lightning and meteorite weaponry, controlled the major trend of religious themes for the last eighteen hundred years. One of the eight gods of wind and creation, Amun, Theban King of the Gods, Lord of Creation, and Protector of the poor and weak restored his might after Akhenaten’s attempted assassination of the god. The Hidden One, ruler of the sky, held sway over more Egyptian land than any other god, but this only represents half his power, half his influence, half his wealth, and half his name.

Re

     Re, well known Egyptian god of the sun, is easily one of the most important and long-reigning gods of the Egyptian past. He assimilated or coalesced with nearly every god as attested by the innumerable mentions of his name in nearly every temple. Representing the sun at noon, Egyptians credited Re with the flow of every day life as his presence was necessary for light, agriculture, and reproduction. As one of the universal gods from the late Old Kingdom, Re’s position as the sun allowed him to interact with all aspects of creation: heavens, earth, and underworld. The king’s cult dates back to the second dynasty where the king takes the name meaning “son of Re.” From the earliest times, Re, divine father of Horus, protected the king. Re, as father of the king, impregnated the queen in the story of divine birth which later tailored the story to Amun-Re.
     Though just one of many sun gods, Re was the falcon-headed sun god of all creation. “Khepera symbolized the rising sun and Re personified the sun at noon, when it is most powerful; Aten was the personification of the setting sun.” In the heavens the sun represented both his eye and his body as he daily traversed the body of Nut, the sky god, since the Old Kingdom. On earth Re was the first king of creation and all kings descended from him. In the underworld Re travelled during the night before arising on the horizon each day. This cycle associated Re with every part of life and readily adapted him to worship with other gods. Particular association with Osiris because of travel through the underworld each night resulted in an eventual fusion of the two where the two gods became one in the night, smoothing the mythology of both of their fatherhoods of Horus.
     Because of his widespread associations, depictions of him vary by time, location, and other gods associated with particular manifestations. Pharaohs constantly built temples in his honor after the fifth dynasty. This variety demonstrates his versatility, influence, pervasiveness, and power. His symbolism includes a disc, cobra, wings, scarab, ram, falcon, bull, cat, and lion which are associated with him largely through his connections with other gods.
     Worship to the sun god expanded through the eras though Iunu, “City of the Sun,” remained Re’s center of worship; the Greeks called this city Heliopolis because of Re’s strongholds there. Pharaoh’s duties involved worship of Re at sunrise when he entered the world from his nightly travels in the netherworld. Along with this, falcon and the Mnevis bull mummifications were performed in his honor. Use of Hymns after the Middle Kingdom became an integral part of worship with a literary height in the New Kingdom. As a creator god, a myth held that humanity arose from his tears of joy at creation. The most steadfast reason for his continued worship was thankfulness since the sun brought light and life each day.

Amun-Re’s Cooronation

     These two major gods, Amun and Re, did not gain authority without reason. A local god until the twelfth dynasty with the rise of Middle Kingdom Theban pharaohs, the eighteenth dynasty raised Amun to his position as king. Amun had long been associated with Re through the heavens. The rise of Amun seems sudden compared to that of Re who, from the second dynasty onward, gradually nurses his influence, penetrating hundreds of other cults. A nearly universal god by the fifth dynasty, it took the development of a strong connection with Amun to define the strength of Re’s influence. To make the power and prestige hit home, under Ramesses III, the temples for Amun-Re controlled ten percent of Egyptian land with eighty-six thousand temple workers and priests, four-hundred thousand life stock, and eighty-three ships.
     Keeping the power that pharaohs had over the religion, especially early on, the originating town of pharaohs at key times in history dictated the course of which gods would expand through political favoritism. As readily apparent, without the rise of Thebes, Amun would not have risen.
     As the local deity of Thebes for the Middle and New Kingdoms, Amun rode the wave of pharaonic preference to secure his power before becoming independent of it much as his priests did at the end of the New Kingdom. Amenophis III used Amun as his preferred god to enforce his treaty letters with Caananite rulers, recognizing Amun as the “great god.” This preference allowed Amun’s influence to extend beyond the borders of Eygpt for a time, a rarity for Egyptian gods. Similarly, Re’s prominence grew through associations with pharaoh from early times.
     Re’s position was widely recognized as a powerful god. Temple gate writings often invoked the protection of Re in their dedications: “To be said: Oh, Doorkeepers, Oh, Doorkeepers, Oh, Guardians of their netherworld, who swallow souls and eat shadows of the glorified. Apes comes upon them, assigning them to the place of destruction. Oh, just ones, this beneficent soul of the excellent sovereign, Osiris, Ramesses [II], the beloved of Amun, like Re.”4 This stanza shows the power of the king, Ramesses II, by association with the power of Amun and Re. Each gate holds curses for those that disrespect the king, blessings for offerings, and praise to the various other gods, notably Amun and Re.
     That the gods could die was reiterated in myths, the necessity of caring for the temples, treasuring the gods’ Rens. Mythologically, Osiris died at Set’s hands. Later periods feared that Re was “decrepitly old” because he had not rested, constantly travelling. This fear lent some justification for the fusion with Amun because it allowed Re to gain extra strength from a dominating name, the king of the gods. Thus, Thebes became a focus area for Re worship and increased the importance of Amun-Re.

Amun-Re’s Culmination

     The Amun and Re absorbed and associated with many other gods, not just each other. One of the strongest indications for the late rise of Amun-Re in the canon of Egyptian religion involved the eighteenth dynasty’s organization of gods into triads, typically a father god, mother goddess, and a male child. One of the most powerful families, the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, represented nearly all the most powerful gods. Amun’s nature as god of the air and wind would have suited him for a place alongside the Ogdoad. Moreover, it was not unnatural that the priests there should have wished to connect their city with the great god of imperial Thebes who was then at the height of his glory. By the Nineteenth Dynasty Amun-Re had become so well established there that, as just has been shown, Ramesses II thought it necessary to found a temple for him.
     Further integration into the mythological past involved Amun as a creator god. Each subsequent generational pairs of gods consisted of a male and female. Amun created Shu and Tefnut who birthed Geb and Nut who completed the lineage of the king since Re-Osiris was one of their sons. Nonetheless, flexibility is permitted because although there is a multiplicity of approaches to Egyptian religion, all are correct.
     Horus never successfully absorbed Amun like so many other sky gods. However, Amun absorbed a large contingent of sky gods which were depicted as rams. This connection allowed Amun to gain widespread popularity and strong association with the ram as his sacred animal. Absorbing other gods’ attributes strengthened a god through widening his worship and power base. “Finally, the more terrible aspect of such a god became emphasized in a compound form, which approximated Amun more closely still to his less placid relatives of the more northern skies.” Amun championed integrating other gods into himself. Re, alternately, grew stronger by association while leaving the other gods largely intact.
     Gods closely associated with Amun and Re also experienced positive reinforcement. Mut, wife of Amun, became the queen of the gods in Thebes, a new position which did not develop until the Middle Kingdom. Mut had previously been a very minor deity, a familial goddess of the house that rose to pharaoh. Nonetheless, she remained an independent god associated with Amun and was never absorbed even at the height of the eighteenth dynasty’s reorganization. Pharaoh’s imagery as the living embodiment of Hours encouraged the fostering of Re’s universal worship. Re-Horakhty, “Re who is Horus of the Horizons,” gave a positive feedback loop between pharaoh and any cults associated with Re.
     Two key terms to understanding the success of both Amun and Re deal with the ability to connect to characteristics of other gods. This flexibility accounts for a great deal of Egypt’s religious resilience in later periods. Amun’s most common technique, henotheism, involves absorbing another god entirely. Henotheism, the worship of one supreme God while recognizing lower deities, allowed Amun to continually heighten his power. The end result is one god with expanded powers, symbolism, and regional influence. Syncretism is the alternative, adapting attributes and associating with other gods’ strengths and the key to Re’s widespread influence.5 Egyptians seem to have preferred syncretism.
     By the nineteenth dynasty, stele indicate that Amun and Amun-Re were inseparable, probably due to Amun’s henotheism. Re managed to remain separated because of syncretism. While temples dedicated to Amun and Re existed at Hermopolis, no temple for Amun-Re existed until the nineteenth dynasty when a large section of Amun’s temple underwent construction to alter it. The process of henotheism is difficult to understand because of the complex variability involved in associating one god with another so closely as to engulf it completely. Sometimes the starting-point is not plurality but unity, which is differentiated into three
[distinct gods]. In the sun-god, the rising sun, Khepri, the midday sun, Re, and the setting sun, Aten, are distinguished, and these modalities are joined in the name Khepri-Re-Aten. The gods Ptah, Sokar, and Osiris could be conjoined and depicted as a single being: Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The great majority of texts regard this composite god as singular. In a few cases, where the third person plural is used of [Ptah-Sokar-Osiris], he seems to be looked upon as a plural being.
     Indeed, it seems that gods could be viewed as distinct or conjoined depending on need and context. A temple wall reads, “The pantheon is a triad who do not have their equal. Hidden is his name as Amun. He is Re in countenance. Ptah is his body.” Amun-Re-Ptah, a powerful triad, represented characteristics of all three gods but took on a single, separate identity that blended the individual entities. The triad, if composed of all males, allowed each beings characteristics to mix. Sky gods often absorb other cults to encourage larger followings. Thus, by the end of the Eleventh Dynasty, Amun associated with Re to control the sun.
     All Egyptian gods held many names. Hathor, goddess of beauty, had a new name for each day of the year. Re had over seventy-five independent of his associations with other gods. Amun had an “unknowable number” because his character as the Hidden One caused him to withhold information. Combining the known names for Amun and Re results in a third of all known names of the Egyptian gods. Just as their names, depictions varied. Late Period descriptions of Amun-Re give him four heads, seven-hundred-seventy-seven eyes, and a million ears to enhance his omniscience, omnipresence, and care to his worshipers individually.

1 Temple size and number of a god often explain favoritism of the pharaohs, not popularity among the people. Over the extended period Amun-Re ruled as king of Egyptian gods, the masses accepted his standing and supported the increase in his influence throughout Egypt.
2 While representative of justice and order, the goddess Maat also embodied justice and was responsible for weighing the heart of the judged dead. The line between the goddess and process whereby the pharaoh ruled with justice are nearly indistinguishable without context even on Egyptian sources. Represented by an ostrich feather, Maat’s popularity among the Egyptian populace was long lived and integral to mundane activities.
3 These declarations of Amun’s power come from his status as the prominent god of Thebes. When Thebes expelled the Hyksos and founded the Middle Kingdom, Egypt looked both to Theban pharaonic and religious leadership.
4 Mohamed Abdelrahiem, “Chapter 144 of the Book of the Dead from the Temple of Ramesses II at Abydos,” Studien zur Altagyptischen Kultur 34, (2006), 5-6.
5 While Henotheism means the worship of a supreme god with recognition of others, the Egyptian case follows this example to the extreme with the supreme deity becoming powerful enough to disestablish the cults of similar gods entirely.

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Agatha Tyche